Peer-to-peer NFT sales surge as average purchase price increases 7X

Non-fungible tokens and digital collectibles have been selling like hotcakes over the past couple of months as volumes on peer-to-peer marketplaces surge.

From NFTs representing NBA finals moments to crypto industry character cards, the total lifetime NFT volume on the Ethereum blockchain alone has exceeded $120 million, according to crypto research firm Messari.

Messari's research tracked the demand for NFTs, which includes digital art, collectibles and in-game items, over the third quarter.

It found the cumulative number of users who interacted with peer-to-peer NFT marketplace OpenSea surpassed 25,000, and that the platform saw a record $2 million in total volume in September;.

NFT demand surged in Q3 as OpenSea reached new heights in both volumes and users.

The average NFT purchase price has also significantly increased over the third quarter reaching an average of $161, which is the highest since the early days of CryptoKitties in 2017 and seven times the historical average.

"Average spending on NFTs has beaten the historical average of $23 for 150 consecutive days."

The research noted that digital art marketplace Rarible had launched its own liquidity mining incentives in the third quarter which caused volumes to surge to more than $10 million as traders bought and sold NFTs to earn RARI tokens.

When launched, The Finals sold $163,530 worth of NFTs in roughly two mins and the top buyers spent over $5,000 each on NFTs, according to cryptoslam.io.

A recent blog post noted that almost 8,600 NBA collectibles have been sold P2P for a combined sum of around $330,000 over the last two weeks.